Modern computer workstation setups regularly include multiple displays in various configurations. With such multi-display setups more display real-estate is available than most are able to comfortably attend to. While the benefits of large or multi-display setups have been demonstrated in several studies, it has also been suggested that this increase in display space leads to usability problems, window management difficulties and issues related to information overload.
Another potential issue is change blindness: users' inability to detect significant visual display changes when there is a disruption in continuity such as a brief flicker or a shift in visual focus. The effects of change blindness in multi-display environments have not been extensively studied. However, in one study, change blindness was reported as being a significant factor for operators managing critical events using multi-display command and control systems with unattended displays.
In general, the increased display real-estate afforded by multi-display setups means that users are unable to attend to all of it at once. In particular, this point is reached when the total display area is so large that it does not fit within the user's field of vision. In this case, the user has to substantially turn their head to see different parts of the display environment. This situation can arise when the number of displays or the distance between the displays increases. For example, it is likely to occur when users are working with three displays aligned bezel to bezel. When the user is only able to observe part of the multi-display environment, changes occurring on the unattended displays are difficult to track.